


in the stardust of a kiss

by kelpiethereal



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1920s, Alternate Universe - Noir, F/F, anything you'd expect from a gangster movie, follow me on tumblr for my terrible posts @knifecatnureyev, i guess penumbra is noir already but hey, its just the first chapter and im bad at long form so its 1262 words for now, references to alchol, use of guns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:20:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24487336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelpiethereal/pseuds/kelpiethereal
Summary: buddy aurinko is the rising star of hyperion city’s jazz scene, and vespa ilkay has been hired to keep an eye on her. it’s a simple bodyguard job, and vespa’s a pro, what could possibly happen?
Relationships: Buddy Aurinko/Vespa
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26
Collections: READ MORE WLW FIC COWARDS





	in the stardust of a kiss

**Author's Note:**

> first fic i've ever posted let's go lads !!!

The light, Vespa thought, came not from the hot, heavy spotlights in the ceiling, but from the singer- the dame stood statuesque before the band, with those cascading corkscrews of ochre hair warm as the sky at sunrise. Warm, that was her, skin in deep shades of copper and mahogany, embers for eyes, rich voice weaving its way between trumpets’ brassy blasts and balancing itself across the tight, energetic double-bass. The gold fabric in her dress caught the light, and shimmered. Buddy Aurinko. The other woman watched her from the side of the stage as the music slowed and the piano took the reins. Buddy breathed in and her whole form seemed to swell just slightly. A minor chord, a parting of the lips, and her voice spilled out of her once more. 

Vespa Ilkay nearly sighed aloud at its sweetness. Vespa, as far she saw it, wasn’t warm. She was short, lean, battle-scarred, with sharp eyes and sharp bones and sallow olivine skin that seemed to reflect the light oddly, like it was a little too pale for itself somehow. Such contrast to the elegant creature just a few feet from her. Magnetic. 

Aurinko had that effect on people, it’s how she had managed to pull herself from performing unpaid in small, dingy clip joints and dive bars to headlining at bigger, less dingy drums whose clientele tended to have more money in their wallets and more drink in their glasses. Jazz joints were never places for the real well-to-do, but Buddy Aurinko had made it about as far as you can get in this scene. Sure, the places she got booked were glammed-up, but all it took to know the truth about them was a bit of town gossip and two eyes trained on a dark corner. A lot of money changed a lot of hands, and Vespa was sure it was never for anything good. Scumbags, the lot of them, whether they drank cheap liquor or fancy champagne. Not that she could complain, she was practically one of the family, dumped here by some anonymous mob type with an eye on Aurinko’s lucrative talents. Officially anonymous, but Vespa had a pretty good bet it was Vicky, because it was always Vicky with these jobs- play bodyguard for some glitzy up-and-coming canary, and don’t let anybody but Vicky’s guys whisper in her ear. But Aurinko was… She was something else, up there with that sweet, deep voice that carried the whole song along, and that wry smile, catching some unsuspecting cat in the crowd every now and again. It made her listen the way none of Vicky’s other two-bit glittery protégés had. Rapturously.

Vespa did sigh, to herself this time; she’d been so drawn-in that she hadn’t been doing her damn job. Guilt creeped into the pit of her stomach, and apprehension, and even now, even after all the years of being Vespa, having Vespa’s mind- some fear. Not much, but enough to make her dread the turn towards the shadows. Don’t be nervous, that makes it worse, she knew. Not that knowing ever helped much when her mind was broken up the way it was. The recesses of the club heaved with people drenched in darkness. The candles on tables threw tall, distorted shadows onto the stone walls; laughter echoed from corners; conversations were warped by the weird basement acoustics. Eyes gleamed. Vespa’s heart began to quicken. No, she refused to let them in now. The flicker at the corner of her eye meant nothing, was nothing. But some partygoer’s eyes locked onto hers from across the dance floor, and as he smiled, his teeth seemed a little more like fangs. Thud, went Vespa’s heart, thud thud thud. 

“Hello,” he said, softly, through the muddy noises of the room. “Looking for someone?”

Vespa made no sound. Yes, she thought.

“Is it me? I’d have thought you’d be able to tell by now.” A soft chuckle. Vespa’s hand tightened around the Colt at her belt. Shut up. 

“Here to protect her, aren’t you? How are you going to do that when you’re conjuring beasties up out of every dark corner?” He stepped into a light, and his face, lit from below, resembled her insufferable colleague’s so much… “You’re paranoid, Ilkay,” he sang, and it wasn’t him, of course it wasn’t him, she had known that well enough, but it still took everything she’d got not to take that gun out and put a bullet right between Julius Oscuro’s lying teeth. He gazed at her, head tilted, like a feline, amusedly. “Better watch out, Ilkay, I might be about to BOP her!” 

“Get. the hell. outta my head.” Vespa growled, and turned herself away. And he did get out, a bit, skulked back into his shadow, but that was the thing with the phantoms- they never did much less than skulk. They weren’t so bad tonight, but in Vespa’s line of work, ‘not bad’ was dangerous. Higher-ups liked using the dames because they didn’t get noticed. Some crazy bearcat trying to clip the thin air would get carted off to a loony bin in a second flat. So Vespa ignored the voices. Ignored the movements, ignored it all, stared at Aurinko and her band because that music warded not-Oscuro off as well as anything. 

As a brassy blast died off the trumpets and a high, bright note faded from Aurinko’s lips, she leaned towards the audience and spoke. “Thank you all,” she purred, “for being so kind to me and my band here.” Vespa was sorry it was over already, but not exactly upset to be getting out of that grimy speakeasy with the crawling shadows. “Before we go, darlings, I’d like to leave you all with a final song,” and as she spoke, as the piano rose, as the spotlight dimmed, Vespa caught a glimpse of movement in the audience. A practiced, subtle reach into a jacket, betrayed only by a slight glint at the person’s chest. Shit. The delicate timbre of Buddy’s voice began to swell against a soft, muted saxophone. She seemed impenetrable up there, in her little floodlight halo. But Vespa knew, a split-second, one slip-up, and charm wouldn’t save her from a bullet in her chest. 

“Ooh, Vespa, have you found a crazed murderer? How fun!”

“Shut up, Oscuro.” She tried to do her checks, quick, were they shiny, could she blink and shake her head, but she didn’t have the time to count to three or hum a tune, and Aurinko hadn’t seen them, and Oscuro wouldn’t shut up in the corner of her eye-

“Look at you, all wild-eyed. You’re this worked-up over someone reaching for a cigarette? You are getting rusty, dear. So much for quick-witted stoicism, an-” 

“I said, SHUT IT! You’re wrong!”

So she moved. Scrambled onstage, and grabbed the singer by the waist. Her sweet note died with a squawk as Vespa slammed them both to the ground, and in an electric moment with her face to the floor, Vespa was terrified she’d gotten it wrong, that she’d just rugby-tackled her charge for no reason- until she heard the crack of the bullet above them. Aurinko gave a shocked, choking little scream beside her, but Vespa had no time to deal with shell-shock right now. She found Aurinko’s terrified gaze on the dust-caked wood next to her, and tried not to think about the jolt in her stomach as she noticed just how intense the amber glow of those eyes was. 

“Alright, miss.” she hissed. “Now, we run.”


End file.
